


Something that Starts with a P

by zorilleerrant



Category: Charmed (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 10:21:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6325216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zorilleerrant/pseuds/zorilleerrant





	1. Chapter 1

The very first time Wyatt is tempted to the other side – and Wyatt’s always been very careful about that, especially considering the constant warnings Piper and Leo give about evil other Wyatt – is over something that never should have happened in the first place. Because demons lie, and Wyatt knows this. Wyatt knows looking demons in the eye, even to prove how brave you are, is a bad idea, because some demons can read minds and some demons can read fears and hopes and desires and some demons can tell things about you that you never even knew –

Or, maybe, convince you those things are true. Because demons lie to get their way, and demons lie for fun, and demons lie to fuck up Wyatt’s life.

And it has to be a demon lie, because Wyatt’s never heard about anything like this before.

Because of course Wyatt has to deal with a deepening voice, and chest hairs, and awkward dreams that leave the witch sticky and confused and shaking in the shower trying to get it off. That’s just what getting older means. That’s growing up. And it’s awkward and upsetting for everyone, the same way Wyatt’s classmates all hate their acne and greasy hair and body odor.

Those things don’t seem to bother Wyatt quite as much, though.

And then a demon – Wyatt knows better than to listen to a demon – tells Wyatt a spell, and it just seems so simple, so right – and Wyatt uses it.

Nothing happens, for a moment. Then, Wyatt can feel the magic start to take hold. Something shifts in the air. It’s not like all the spells that the teachers talk about at magic school, where they’re taught things that are absolutely useless in battle or in life. It’s more time consuming, and takes more concentration, and leaves Wyatt exhausted, staring naked into the mirror, watching just the barest beginnings of breasts develop, and a strange sort of emptiness between the legs.

After that, she doesn’t feel tired at all, anymore.

But Wyatt knows that her family won’t understand, won’t forgive her for listening to a demon, won’t believe how perfect this body is even with her baby fat and her knobbly knees and the way her features just never look quite even whether or not she’s wearing her cousin’s makeup. She covers it up. She pulls on jeans and a t-shirt and hides the barest flash of disappointment when her chest isn’t big enough to show through, yet.

And everything starts to go wrong.

It’s subtle things, at first. Her mom snapping at her, then apologizing. Chris mouthing off to a teacher, hands clasped over his mouth almost immediately, but not soon enough. The Charmed Ones fighting – not enough to knock them out of balance, but confusing all the same, because the petty insults aren’t ones Wyatt’s heard often before, and usually only when the sisters were tired or drunk or otherwise not paying enough attention to realize it’s best not to say anything at all.

After that, it’s sort of unexpected things people keep doing. Piper is more likely to blow things up – by accident, even though she’s gotten control over those powers years ago – and Leo is more likely to just orb out in the middle of a conversation. Phoebe’s reading people without their permission, and Paige is just taking things. And all the kids are more prone to yelling and talking back and throwing their powers around, resorting to violence and manipulation and revenge at the drop of a hat.

And then people start to admit secrets. Everyone but Wyatt. The ones that bother her most are the ones that make her parents fight, the buried deep resentments that sometimes force them apart, the things they try not to upset the kids with. And then there are things the sisters aren’t telling each other, haven’t told each other, still not enough to negate the power of three, but it’s heading there. And her cousins are getting bad grades or fighting in school or having romances they don’t want anyone to know about and Wyatt can’t help but feel guilty because it’s her fault. Because it’s personal gain. Because Wyatt couldn’t just keep the one secret and now her parents know about Chris’s drugs and Wyatt’s the only one not blurting out all these personal things and everyone knows. Everyone knows it’s Wyatt’s fault. And she hates to admit it, but she’s almost willing to put up with it – to put her family through it – except that any minute now, one of them is going to blab about magic.

Wyatt knows she was almost erased as a baby. A cautionary tale.

So she takes one last look in the mirror, and closes her eyes, and reverses the spell.

And everything goes back to normal.


	2. Chapter 2

Wyatt’s been with her boyfriend long enough now to admit her insecurities. She likes to be held, and she likes to be cuddled, and she likes to have sweet nothings whispered in her ear. She’s not shy about asking for something like that when she’s in a bad mood, or just when she’s feeling overly sappy, or just because. She hasn’t been for a while.

And her boyfriend feels the same way – she can tell because he always indulges her, sometimes walking up and hugging her before she can even ask, brightening her mood. He asks if he needs his own reassurances, too, and brings flowers or chocolates, and drapes himself across the couch with his head in her lap, making fun of whatever movie they’ve put on.

Sometimes they fight, of course, even yell, but she’s yet to use her powers and hurt him, and she feels like she’s one up on her mother in that respect. Even if Leo doesn’t actually get hurt, what’s the difference there, if Wyatt can just heal everything away? But the fights are civil enough, with some name calling and complaints and apologies later, and just about exactly that normal life that her whole family is looking for. It’s almost perfect, and she thinks she might want to move in with him.

One night, when he’s draped over her, both of them sated and giggly and considering another round, she risks complaining about her body.

But she doesn’t exactly make herself clear, and he doesn’t understand.

And instead, he tells her it doesn’t matter to him, because she’s perfect and gorgeous and he can’t imagine her body looking any other way.

So she cries, and she throws him out, and she never talks to him again.

She doesn’t give him an explanation. She remembers too well what happened last time she failed to keep a secret. Even if the spell itself won’t drop the repercussion anvil in her lap, the universe will, somehow. She’s not destined for love. She knows it. She knows it every time she sees the strange looks Uncle Coop gives her, when he starts to speak, and then just shakes his head. She’s an alien specimen to the true romantic, the one who insists everyone is meant to love. Everyone but Wyatt.

She doesn’t date for a while after that. In a way, she’s relieved, because she would have had to talk to her family about it at some point. If they’d moved in together, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid it. Not that, in San Francisco, they make such an odd pair. They went out together a lot and never got more than a slur or sarcastic comment, and not often enough to be more than off-putting and irritating. Never enough to feel dangerous.

Never enough to feel life-threatening, and Wyatt doesn’t know, she’s never tried, but she’s heard stories. She knows what it could be like.

Even in San Francisco, even when it’s practically normal, she’s afraid to look for anything too girly, let alone an actual dress. Actual shoes. Actual bras she doesn’t need and panties that won’t fit right anyway. She never wears her cousins’ make-up, anymore, not even when they joke around about makeovers and being a pretty pretty princess.

She just goes out in her normal clothes, which are pretty much like her demon hunting gear. Just jeans, and plain shirts, and a leather jacket. It’s a men’s leather jacket, and if it hadn’t belonged to an old boyfriend first, she doesn’t think she’d be able to wear it. As it is, it sometimes makes her second-guess herself. It fits too well, not enough like she’s playing dress-up. But at least jeans and shirts aren’t gendered. Girls wear those all the time. Most of Wyatt’s friends wear jeans they admit are out of the men’s section, just for the pocket space, and it doesn’t look weird on them at all.

Wyatt just wishes they didn’t look so weird on her.

But no one else notices.

And everything goes back to normal.


	3. Chapter 3

They’re in the middle of a fight when Wyatt notices the neon pink webbing through the hole the demon tore in Chris’s shirt. She thanks magic that her instincts to protect her brother overwhelmed her curiosity, kept her from even saying anything until all five were vanquished, and the two witches were leaning against the brick wall trying to catch their breath.

She looks over at Chris, curiously.

Chris looks down, only just noticing the burned and torn shirt, and mutters, “oh.”

Wyatt doesn’t say anything.

Chris removes his jacket, and tosses it to Wyatt, who catches it out of reflex, and before she has it folded across her arm, Chris has pulled the ruined shirt off and balled it up to throw away. Chris is left in nothing but a sports bra, now, but it goes up high on his chest and down to his waist and isn’t actually all that revealing at all, now that Wyatt thinks about it.

“What?” asks Chris. “I can’t have them jiggling around when we’re trying to fight demons.”

Wyatt wonders if all their cousins wear these to fight and if she can find one that fits.

Chris gives Wyatt an odd look. “You never noticed before?”

Wyatt shakes her head.

“Well, okay,” Chris says. “I guess our parents aren’t the only oblivious ones.”

Wyatt starts to talk, and stops, and starts again. “How long?”

“Hormones, ages,” Chris says with a shrug, “the last surgery is in six months.”

Wyatt stares off into space for a while, and doesn’t say anything.

“It doesn’t bother you, does it?” Chris asks.

“What do I call you?” Wyatt asks, instead of answering.

“The same thing you’ve always called me,” Chris says, “I’m still just Chris.”

“You never asked anyone to switch pronouns,” Wyatt says, her voice just slightly accusing.

“Well, no,” Chris agrees, “I prefer masculine pronouns.”

“Why?” Wyatt snaps, her eyes aglow.

“Because I do.” Chris shakes his head and suppresses a glare. “I femme it up, sometimes, but that’s more Bianca’s thing than mine. I like the rugged look.”

“You don’t even want to change your name?” Wyatt whispers.

“No.” Chris frowns. “Why, do you?”

Wyatt crosses her arms and shrugs.

Chris gets sort of annoyed at that, and an orb later, they’re standing in the attic, staring at the Book of Shadows and Wyatt’s watching him do that passive-aggressive thing with arranging candles stock-still by Wyatt’s side. And then he’s summoning someone.

Grams.

‘’She helped me, when I was figuring it out,” he murmurs.

And then Wyatt’s curled up on the couch, sobbing too hard to tell her story in some places, while Chris and Grams just wait patiently, twin sympathetic looks, and then she’s done and Chris is hugging her, and Grams is trying to explain what does and doesn’t cross the boundary of personal gain and it’s a bit much to take in but at least she knows there’s somewhere to go from here.

“Have you considered taking my name?” Grams asks.

And yes, yes she has.

“Ha,” Grams says, at last, “I always told your mother Halliwells only had girls.”

And Chris and Wyatt-for-now laugh until they get lightheaded.

And everything is back to normal.


End file.
